Controller looked away before crash

Aug. 30, 2006

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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crash site: Lexington Fayette Urban County Police officer Donald Childers stands guard Tuesday in front of the debris field of Comair Flight 5191 at the crash site in Lexington, Ky. JOHN SOMMERS II, REUTERS

crash site: Lexington Fayette Urban County Police officer Donald Childers stands guard Tuesday in front of the debris field of Comair Flight 5191 at the crash site in Lexington, Ky. JOHN SOMMERS II, REUTERS

LEXINGTON, Ky.

The lone air traffic controller on duty the morning Comair Flight 5191 crashed cleared the jet for takeoff, then turned his back to do some "administrative duties" as the aircraft veered down the wrong runway, a federal investigator said Tuesday.

Separately, the Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged violating its own policies when it assigned only one controller to the Lexington tower.

The commuter jet struggled to get airborne and crashed in a field before daybreak Sunday, killing 49 of the 50 people aboard, after taking off from a 3,500-foot runway instead of an adjoining one that was twice as long. Experts said the plane needed at least 5,000 feet for takeoff. The sole survivor, first officer James Polehinke, was in critical condition Tuesday.

The air traffic controller had an unobstructed view of the runways and had cleared the aircraft for takeoff from the longer runway, said National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman.

Then "he turned his back to perform administrative duties," Hersman said. "At that point, he was doing a traffic count."

The controller, whose name was not released, had been working at the Lexington airport for 17 years and was fully qualified, Hersman said.

Polehinke was flying the plane when it crashed, but it was the flight's captain, Jeffrey Clay, who taxied the aircraft onto the wrong runway, Hersman said. Clay then turned over the controls to Polehinke for takeoff, the investigator said.

Polehinke was pulled from the burning plane after the crash but has not been able to tell investigators why the pilots tried to take off from the wrong runway.

Both crew members were familiar with the Lexington airport, according to Hersman.

She said Clay had been there six times in the past two years, and Polehinke had been there 10 times in the past two years - but neither had been to the airport since a taxiway repaving project a week earlier had altered the taxiway route.

Earlier Tuesday, the FAA admitted it violated a policy, outlined in a November 2005 directive, requiring that control tower observations and radar approach operations be handled by separate controllers.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the controller at the Lexington airport had to do his own job - keeping track of airplanes on the ground and in the air up to a few miles away - as well as radar duties.

Before Hersman's briefing Tuesday, the NTSB said Polehinke was flying the plane; it made no mention of Clay being the one who taxied the plane into position.

Polehinke's mother, Honey Jackson, said her son is not to blame for the crash, and she asked people to be patient until all the facts were revealed.

"He could die at any moment," said Jackson, a lounge singer who lives in Miami.

Jackson's boyfriend and business manager, Antonio Cruz, said the 44-year-old Polehinke was on life support, with punctured lungs and a broken pelvis.

He was scheduled to have the first of many operations Tuesday, Cruz said.

Federal officials are looking into whether runway lights or the repaving project confused the crew into turning onto the wrong runway.

Polehinke had a clean record as a pilot, with no accidents or mistakes, authorities said.

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